13 Vital Business Lessons We Learnt as Justwords Turns a Teen

When you turn from an employee to an entrepreneur, you have no idea what you are in for.

Running a business is nothing short of a battle. I can say this from my 13 years of running Justwords. You might have read books on it, heard lectures of how to do it, studied business management, but nothing really makes your ready for what you are going to deal with. It will require all the will force, luck, passion, motivation and hunger-to-do-something to establish your own business and scale it up.

The funny thing is when entrepreneurs start a company, they do not think of the troubles and problems that lay ahead. They think of victories, and wins, and how they are about to change something in the world – irrespective of whether they can or will ever do. And that is what propels them ahead.

Justwords started in 2010. At that time, it was impossible to believe that one day we would be an award-winning company that would set new standards for a young industry and be respected by our clients and competitors for the kind of work we do.

Starting your business is like being swept up by a big wave into the sea, when you have just about learnt to swim. But that’s the beauty of it all. You gasp for breath, you come up for air, you remember what you are supposed to do and then just know what you have to do. And that was it.

Once the ball gets rolling, you keep learning, adapting, growing and moving ahead. You also find your sweet spot and you know which activities you need to focus on in order to achieve your larger goal – the VISION with which you started your Business.

Are there some vital tips that can help you along the way? Yes, definitely, I think it helps to know some. And that is what this piece is about – about everything we have learnt 13 Vital Business Lessons over the last 13 years in battle.

Is the battle over? It never is. But we now know how to be battle-ready and that is what I am going to share below.

Here are the 13 Vital Business Lessons We Learnt as Justwords Turns 13

#13. Make sure you absolutely love doing what you have set out to do.

It’s that deep passion that is going to keep you going, month after month, year after year. You will fail, and you will need the strength to get up again and again every morning to get back to doing what you started to do.

So you better love what you do. It’s this love which will keep you going.#12 Have a strong business idea that is creating value

Ask yourself the question – is my service/product helping solve a problem for my customers? Is it creating value? Why would someone be paying for my service/product?

The businesses that last are finally all about creating value to the customers. So what is the value you are creating for your clients? You must absolutely have an answer to that in order to last it out in the market and stand out from the competition.

#12 Have a strong business idea that is creating value

Ask yourself the question – is my service/product helping solve a problem for my customers? Is it creating value? Why would someone be paying for my service/product?

The businesses that last are finally all about creating value to the customers. So what is the value you are creating for your clients? You must absolutely have an answer to that in order to last it out in the market and stand out from the competition.

#11 Savour the insights and journey; do not make it all about money

Yes the goal of doing business is to make money. But remember that you will not earn truckloads of it right away. It will take time. Meanwhile, do not get disillusioned. Enjoy the journey –  enjoy the new connections you will make and the thrill of working on something great, the joy of working with your own team, the motivation that you get from seeing your vision materialise, the happiness that you get from having built something yourself and living that dream everyday. 

10# Invest in marketing and building a brand early

Yes, there will be hundred things to do but do not forget to invest in marketing your business and make it visible to your target audience. Building a brand will take time and cannot happen overnight, but delaying the process won’t help either. 

#9 Be patient

Most of all, you need to have the patience to hang in there. You will need the most on the bad days. Patience is to tell yourself that IT IS OKAY and you will make it – today is not just your day. You have to be able to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

#8 Embrace resilience and be okay to lose smaller battles in order to win the final war.

A resilient mind is the one which can help you win the game. Do not let one loss or one bad customer or one bad something get the better of you. Train your mind to overcome these smaller losses, and stay focussed to win the bigger war.

#7 Have a strong vision and mission for your business – define the purpose of what you are doing and the way to reach that goal.

A BRAND is defined by its VISION, which is the dream you want to achieve in the future. It gives you the sense of purpose and goal to moves towards.

For that to happen you need the whole team to be committed to that VISION, to believe in it and to it live everyday through an authentic MISSION. The mission is, in short, an everyday motto, to achieve the larger vision.

When you finally live and breathe the mission and vision of your company, the whole team starts believing too. That’s what keeps the motivation alive, the inspiration going, and work to happen at a truly committed level.

At Justwords, our VISION is to –

Create “Value” for our customers, our employees; and other stakeholders, which finally impact the larger society in a positive way. 

While our everyday MISSION is to –

To offer outstanding marketing solutions and deliver ‘wow’ by remaining obsessively customer-focused and quality-focused.

#6 Set the foundational values correct and Build the right company culture

Think of foundational values as the roots that set your company’s culture. They anchor your organisation, and as the company grows, these values is what shapes the journey. The foundational values help team members to make the right decisions, helps the company stand out from competition, helps get the right people and also motivate people. It is what defines the narrative of your growth.

With the help of these values, everyone moves in one direction, and towards one goal.

#5 Adapt, change, tweak, improve. Do not let success stop that 

When you taste success, it’s easy to get sucked into that. And that can be a breeding ground for complacency and average work. However, constant improvement is the only recipe for success. You need to keep tweaking and improving the final product/service and make it better and better.

The day you stop exploring and adapting, you are helping others get better than you.

#4 Build a great team who share your vision

Who you choose to bring onboard will define the course of your company too. Don’t always look for the most-smartest, the most-experienced ones. Look for people who have great attitude, who are smart enough to learn things fast, who value learning more than anything, and who believe in your vision. You need people who you can trust, people who are not in for the quick wins. Sure you will need talent, but do not make the only criteria.

#3 Learn from the failures

There will be plenty of failures before you savour the success. And even when you do savour the success, there will be failures again. But you just cannot let your failures get the better of you. The biggest thing you can remember is to accept the failure, understand what mistake you made and what you could have done better to prevent it, get up and be ready for the battle again.

#2 Dominate your competition by getting into the details 

This might seem like a very simple point, but I cannot stress enough on this. When you pay attention to the details, even the minutest ones, you are strengthening/improving your product/service. It’s this attention to detail that makes you different, almost invincible. I can say this because it is this keen attention to ‘how things can be done better’, that helped us stand out in the crowd. We like to look into the details, make things better, make things different. If you ignore the details, you become like everyone else. 

#1 Listen to your customers and ensure satisfaction 

Finally, it’s all about the customers. Not listening to your customers can be fatal, since they provide you endless opportunities to better your service and fill up your gaps. I am not saying that every customer is right in what they way, but you should know what they are saying about your product or service. Their feedback is incredibly valuable in understanding what you lack.

Finally, a happy customer is the best thing you can have for your brand. If you build that trust, others will automatically follow. If you listen to your customers, you would not have to worry about revenue.

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